We were both really excited about sailing the Whitsunday Islands, and we raced up the coast from Hervey Bay (Fraser Island) to Airlie Beach - that took about a day and a half solid driving!

We stopped off in Bundaberg just north of Hervey to visit the Bundaberg rum distillery. That was quite good, we got a few tasters, and a tour around the distillery which was interesting. A little pricey though.

Once we’d arrived in Airlie Beach, we checked in for our 3 day sail and dive liveaboard trip on the ship ‘Kiana’ which was due to sail the next day. Several people had recommended the boat, as it’s one of the only Whitsunday boats that visit the outer reef for diving. It was a little pricey but we went for it anyway. We stayed in a caravan park and then got up super early the next day go head out around the islands.

Kiana is a lovely ship, with a capacity of only 14 passengers. Everyone was really nice, and the crew were awesome too (especially Paul the dive instructor, he was quite funny!) We sailed from the marina and through the Whitsunday islands to Tongue Bay, having a nice lunch en route and travelling with the sails up for a while.

We headed to the Whitsunday Island National Park. We walked a short way through the bush, arriving at a lookout over Whitehaven Beach. I’d heard of it but didn’t realise that those photos you see of gorgeous unspoilt white beaches and pristine blue tropical waters are all taken there. The view was stunning and took me by surprise, it was amazing. We then walked down to the beach and played around for a while, Paul took some great photos playing with perspective on the beach.

We jumped back in the dinghy after a couple of hours and headed back to the ship, where the skipper Joel pointed out a headland in the distance where we would be sailing to moor up in time for dinner. A little while passed, and we’d still gone nowhere. Eventually we were told that there was a problem with the gearbox, and that we’d have to stay where we were for the night. We had a few drinks and got to know the others on the boat, and had a really nice dinner.

A mechanic, and Greg (the owner of the boat) turned up at 6 the next morning. We’d gotten up at 5.30, and watched the sun rise. Unfortunately, after a while we were told that there was no fixing the gearbox (it had detached from the engine!) and we would be being towed back to the marina. Greg and the crew were all very good about it as they knew we would all be disappointed (they all were too) but they scratched the bar tabs for everyone, threw in a cd with photos that Paul had taken so far on the trip, but best of all refunded all our money. So, we ended up spending a night out on the islands and visiting one of the most beautiful spots in Australia for free! It’s such a shame that we weren’t able to do any diving or experience much of the sailing and help out with that and it’s a shame it turned out the way it did, but still!

After we returned early, we headed straight up to a town called Ayr, where Paul and Joel had recommended a very good dive site. The next day, we were out on the water and diving the SS. Yongala, a passenger ship that sank 99 years ago, complete with 122 crew and passengers (and apparently one horse). The dive was a little deeper than we’re allowed to go with our Open Water qualification, but we had a guide with us who took us through some very brief and simple ‘deep dive training’ which basically consisted of looking at stuff on the bottom (how colours vary etc.)

The dive itself was fantastic, you aren’t actually allowed inside the wreck, but there’s so much coral encrusted round it that the outside is something to see! We saw masses of fish, and an endangered hawksbill turtle. We’d definitely recommend it as a great place to dive and see loads!

From there we headed up towards Townsville, where we visited an aquarium in an attempt to learn the names of fish! We also went to Magnetic Island for a night. We weren’t very taken with the place, its quite quiet and there isn’t much to do apart from sit on the beach when the weather’s good. We went on a couple of walks and saw some wild koalas though, which was cool.

From Magnetic Island we continued north, taking a (long) detour to visit the highest waterfall in Australia - Wallaman Falls. It took ages to get there, up a very very steep and windy (sometimes unsealed) road, and when we arrived we couldn’t even see the waterfall as there was a big cloud in the way! It did clear a little, but really it was all a bit of an anticlimax and not worth the 100km round trip to get there!

Mission Beach was our next stop, where we did a quick walk (on which we saw a cassowary - from a distance, they’re very weird birds!) and sat on the beach for a while. It’s quite a sweet little town and has a good beach. While in that area we also visited the ‘Murdering Point’ winery, which makes wine from all sorts of different tropical fruit including mangoes and lychees. We bought a bottle of Davidson Plum wine - very tasty!

We then drove up to the Atherton Tablelands, where we visited a cheesery, saw more waterfalls, and some of the most impressive trees I think I’ll ever see. They’re strangler fig trees, which land in a host tree and basically grow on top of them, eventually taking them over. Very impressive! One was 40m around the base, and over 40m high!

We also met up with James and Faye, who had also picked up a Hippie Camper. We all stopped over in a campground and chatted for the evening. The following day we met up again north of Cairns, where we all paid to stay in a caravan park at Ellis Beach - literally right on the beach!

So now we’re up to date. Today, before giving Sheila (our van) back to the camper people, we went to Kuranda, a town known for its markets, located in the tablelands north of Cairns. We parked in a council car park and wandered about for a good few hours - I bought some nice jewelery. However, on returning to our van, we found that we’d been broken in to!

We were really annoyed, they’d popped the window and made a right mess of the place, unpacking our bags and flinging our stuff everywhere. Unfortunately, we’d left my ipod in the back, so that’s gone, but thankfully they missed Pete’s camera lenses, the hard disk we’ve backed all the photos up on, and we’ve been carrying all our important bits around so they didn’t get any of that. We spoke to the police and got a crime number, so we can claim on insurance. It was just such a shame that it happened just before we were due to give the van back! Luckily we didn’t lose the deposit on the van!

We’re now in a hostel in Cairns, which so far seems like a really really nice place. We’re on the waterfront and the hostel is nice, there’s lots of places to eat out and we had a look round the night markets right by us. Pete had his hair cut and also bought an outback Aussie hat!!

Tomorrow we’re up bright and early to begin our 3 day 2 night liveaboard trip on the Great Barrier Reef! We’re due to do 11 dives, including 2 night dives. It’s quite pricey, similar to sailing the Whitsundays but better value (on Kiana we got 1 dive included ). Really, it’s a good job we missed out on Kiana the way we did, as we can actually afford a nice long dive trip now!